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Five things to get or see this month

Robert Breer - Life and Fate - The Passenger - Top Girls - truth and reconciliation

Robert Breer, The Baltic, Gateshead,
until 25 September

This show displays paintings, sculptures and animations from throughout Robert Breer's life. Breer was part of the modernist movement and was a great innovator in film and animation. He returned to the US in 1959 having spent the previous 10 years in Paris's modernist art circles.
Breer was always where it was happening and is art is always whimsical, amusing and fun. Breer died a few weeks after this show opened at it's a fitting tribute to his work.

Life and Fate, BBC Radio Four, 18-24 September

BBC Radio Four is dramatising Vasily Grossman's epic novel about the battle of Stalingrad, Life and Fate. Grossman drew on his experience as a Soviet journalist at Stalingrad, one the most decisive battles of the Second World War. Life and Fate ranks as one the greatest works of 20th century Russian literature.
Starring Kenneth Branagh, the eight-hour dramatisation runs from 18-24 September (check schedules for exact times). Also look out for the series of other programmes about Grossman that Radio 4 will be putting on in the same week.

The Passenger, English National Opera, London, until October 25

Composer Mieczys?aw Weinberg's opera centers on an encounter between a former guard and prisoner at Auschwitz. Weinberg was a Polish Jew who fled to the Soviet Union at the outbreak of the Second World War and became a close friend of Shostakovich.

Top Girls, Trafalgar Studios, London, until 29 October

Socialist dramatist Caryl Churchill's 1982 play is set at a dinner party hosted by businesswoman Marlene to celebrate her promotion to MD of the Top Girls Employment Agency. An exploration of feminism, class and neoliberalism.

truth and reconciliation, Royal Court theatre, London, until 24 September

Poetic playwright debbie tucker green returns to the Royal Court Theatre with a play that ranges from Rwanda to Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe to Bosnia. Her work is always fearless in its exploration of social issues, with a deep and moving sensitivity to the power of language.